CANADA-U.S. TRADE RELATIONSHIPS: DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPLICATIONS

International Relations/Trade,

TRADE GAINS AND WELFARE COSTS OF INCOME STABILIZATION PROGRAMS FOR HOG PRODUCERS IN QUEBEC

The welfare costs of deficiency payments for an exported commodity may, under certain conditions, outweigh the gains from trade. The potential welfare impacts of stabilization programs in the hog sector in Quebec are estimated, based on a partial equilibrium framework, and elasticity estimates drawn from other sources. The results indicate that the loss in surplus in Quebec as a result of deficiency payments is very modest at approximately $8.5 million or 1.7$14 million.Livestock Production/Industries,

Canada Plans for Metric Time (Priceless Addendum)

Editor\u27s note: Almost as if there were a little ESP at work, just in time for your editor to include it in the treatment of metrics in this issue of ACE QUARTERLY, a letter came from Garth Ketemer, up Toronto-way, that is not only a priceless addition to this sequence on metrics, but uniquely complements Don Nelson\u27s question at the end of paragraph 5 in his article, which immediately precedes this one

The Impact of Air Temperature on Mortality, Morbidity, and Healthcare Cost in the Medicare Population

Abstract: This paper merges weekly average temperature data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center (NDCC) with Medicare claims data in order to analyze the impact of high and low temperatures on mortality, onset of new chronic conditions, and hospital spending. We find a U-shaped pattern to mortality, with high and low temperature weeks exhibiting higher mortality than a 70 degree reference week. The marginal deaths in extreme weeks are healthier than the typical person who dies in the reference week, but less healthy than the population as a whole. We find some evidence of short-term mortality displacement at moderately high temperatures, but not at extremely high temperatures and not for low temperatures, where the impact tends to grow over time. High temperatures are associated with increased onset of new chronic conditions, while low temperatures are associated with lower onset, although this result may be driven by differences in the propensity to access the health care system. In the short run, high temperatures are associated with increased Medicare hospital spending and lower temperatures are associated with decreased hospital spending, although over a one month period both high- and low-temperature weeks are associated with increased hospital spending. Using conventional figures for the value of a life year lost, we find the additional healthcare spending induced by a hot week to be about 3-6% of the mortality cost

Spectroscopic Confirmation of Multiple Red Galaxy-Galaxy Mergers in MS1054-03 (z=0.83)

We present follow-up spectroscopy of the galaxy cluster MS1054-03 (z=0.83) confirming that at least six of the nine merging galaxy pairs identified by van Dokkum et al. (1999) are indeed bound systems: they have projected separations of R_s<10 kpc and relative line-of sight velocities of dv<165 km/s. For the remaining three pairs, we were unable to obtain redshifts of both constituent galaxies. To identify a more objective sample of merging systems, we select bound red galaxy pairs (R_s<=30 kpc, dv<=300 km/s) from our sample of 121 confirmed cluster members: galaxies in bound red pairs make up 15.7+/-3.6% of the cluster population. The (B-K_s) color-magnitude diagram shows that the pair galaxies are as red as the E/S0 members and have a homogeneous stellar population. The red pair galaxies span a large range in luminosity and internal velocity dispersion to include some of the brightest, most massive members (L>L*, sigma>200 km/s); these bound galaxy pairs must evolve into E/S0 members by z~0.7. These results combined with MS1054's high merger fraction and reservoir of likely future mergers indicates that most, if not all, of its early-type members evolved from (passive) galaxy-galaxy mergers at z<~1.Comment: accepted by ApJ Letters; high resolution version of Fig. 2 available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/tran/outgoing/ms1054mgrs.ps.g

Perinatal Risk Factors for Mild Motor Disability

The aetiology of mild motor disability (MMD) is a complex issue and as yet is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of perinatal risk factors in a cohort of 10-year-old boys and girls with (n = 362) and without (n = 1193) MMD. Among the males with MMD there was a higher prevalence of postpartum haemorrhage, caesarean section, low birth weight and stressful first year of life. Among the females with MMD, there was a higher prevalence of essential hypertension, anaemia and threatened pre-term. Multivariable logistic regression revealed gender(male), anaemia, threatened pre-term birth (if female) and hypertension (if female) weakly explained MMD at 10 years. These results underscore the importance of considering gender differences in order to better understand the multiple influences on motor development